AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
On June 2, a joint press release by the Severn River Association and the Chesapeake Conservancy announced the results of a statewide survey of Maryland residents that revealed overwhelming opposition to a proposal by the Naval Academy Golf Association to the Department of Defense and U.S. Navy to lease the Greenbury Point Conservation Area with the intent of building a second golf course at the site.
The press release, written by SRA executive director Jesse Iliff and Chesapeake Conservancy senior VP of communications Jody Couser, explained that the Greenbury Point Conservation Area is a Navy property managed by Naval Support Activity Annapolis. However, the property is entirely within the boundary of the Maryland Critical Area, designated by the State of Maryland as crucial to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
The Severn River Association commissioned the poll conducted by Annapolis-based non-partisan research firm OpinionWorks. The survey of 759 Marylanders found that two-thirds (67%) of those questioned oppose placing a golf course at the conservation area, compared to only 13% who favor it. In Anne Arundel County, where Greenbury Point is known to many residents, 75% oppose creating a golf course at this location. The opposition is heartfelt, with nearly six in ten County residents (58%) saying they strongly oppose it. The poll was conducted May 21 through 27.
Even golfers opposed the location for a golf course, with only 25% of Marylanders who frequently or occasionally golf saying they favor turning the conservation area at Greenbury Point into a golf course.
The results of the OpinionWorks poll are available at bit.ly/greenburypollingmemo.
According to Ed Ziegler, director of public affairs for Naval District Washington, the Naval Academy Golf Association is behind the proposal to lease the land with the idea of expanding the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Course. Ziegler’s description leaves it unclear whether a second course would be created or what “expansion” means.
The existing 18-hole course is a members-only facility utilized by the Midshipmen’s NCAA Division I golf teams, active and retired military, USNA staff and faculty, and civilian members. It’s also accessible to some active-duty and retired military non-members but is primarily played by the 484 current members. The golf course underwent an extensive renovation that was completed in 2020.
Couser and Iliff observed that the 230-acre Greenbury Point Conservation Area, located on a point of land where the Severn River meets the Chesapeake Bay, is one of the last remaining natural areas in Anne Arundel County. It’s a popular public destination for nature lovers, walkers and runners, bikers, anglers, dog-walkers, birdwatchers and photographers.
Nationally known wildlife photographer Joshua McKerrow, formerly with The Capital newspaper, has captured many extraordinary images of birds at Greenbury Point. McKerrow notes that the site is popular with both professional and amateur photographers.
“As for birds, there are about 50 species,” he says. “Greenbury Point hosts birds in every part of its ecosystem. There are Herons, Kingfishers, and a number of ducks and egrets in the marshes. Then Goldfinch, Indigo Buntings, Chipping Sparrows and all the Vireos and Warblers in the meadows. There are Flycatchers, lots of different Hawks and Titmice in the forests and Bald Eagles, and Vultures flying above it all.”
According to Iliff, the conservation area is also a recognized historic site. He notes that the Puritans landed at Greenbury Point in 1649, and historians believe it to be the site where they met the Susquehannock Indians. It is also home to three iconic radio towers once used for submarine communications. (Only three of an original 40 towers remain.)
There is also a building formerly known as Hooper High School on Hooper High Road. An outgrowth of the Naval Academy Primary School in the late 1940’s, Hooper High educated the teenaged children of Naval Academy faculty and staff for a number of years.
On learning of the proposal for a second golf course at Greenbury Point, Iliff says he was astonished and alarmed.
“We’re at a critical time for the Severn River and the Bay,” he says. “The decades-long Bay cleanup effort is hanging by a thread right now. The Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, ‘pollution diet’ in 2010 to restore clean water to the Bay and its estuaries. We’re getting near the TMDL’s end goal of 2025 and we’re falling short of that goal.”
“So, the idea of handing out public forests and wetlands inside the critical area to developers for exclusive golf courses is as antithetical to the spirit of the critical area act and clean water act as I can imagine. As the Opinion Works poll, letters and a petition clearly show, Maryland residents, the Anne Arundel and Annapolis community, and our many nonprofit partners are all adamantly opposed to this proposal. To be honest, I haven’t actually met a single person yet who likes this idea.”
Iliff adds that he was mystified as to how the proposal came about.
Save Greenbury Point Facebook group founders Jennifer Crews-Carey and Sue Steinbrook are trying to find out. They’re among the photographer/bird watchers McKerrow sometimes encounters. The pair met at Greenbury Point while searching for a spot to watch this year’s Blue Angel practice prior to the Naval Academy graduation.
Both knew a meeting was to take place in the Community of Providence, a neighborhood within walking distance of the Greenbury Point Conservation Area, on May 10th to go over proposed plans – a meeting they planned to attend that was subsequently cancelled. A second meeting to be held at the Naval Academy Sports complex at Greenbury Point was cancelled as well. No further meeting date has been announced.
Crews-Carey and Steinbrook were worried about the possibility that the public would lose access to Greenbury point and started their Facebook page to keep people informed. The number of Save Greenbury Point followers has grown from just a few at the beginning to 1,600 and counting.
According to Crews-Carey, followers are passionate about keeping Greenbury Point as it is and the vast majority voice disapproval for a plan to create a second golf course.
Iliff points out that, in order to expand, the Naval Academy Golf Association would need to cut down thousands of trees that were planted as a part of a massive mitigation effort for past environmental impacts and fill-in wetlands. It’s also at odds with a major initiative in the State of Maryland to plant trees as the Chesapeake Bay Program struggles to meet its wetlands conservation goals as part of a 2014 Chesapeake Bay Agreement.
“And here we have a federal agency considering a lease on federal land that would lead to the filling of wetlands and removal of trees?” Iliff asks. “To do this right would be a slap in the face to all the federal policy and state policy and county policy and city policy and even the Naval Academy’s own environmental resource plan.”
Efforts to call attention to the golf course proposal by the Severn River Association, the Chesapeake Conservancy and the Save Greenbury Point Facebook Group were further supported by the Chesapeake Legal Alliance. A petition opposing the golf course has also been launched.
The joint press release from the Severn River Association and the Chesapeake Conservancy notes that on May 31, 2022, 25 nonprofit organizations that are members of the Choose Clean Water Coalition wrote to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro strongly opposing the golf course lease and urging him to reject it.
For those of us who love the way the waters of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay wrap around the Greenbury Point trails affording us the chance to spy an Eagle on its nest or a heron wading in the shallows…or the deep quiet of the forests or meadows where an occasional deer or fox can be seen, it’s time to express our hopes that this pristine environment can be preserved.
You can sign the petition to voice your opposition at Community · Save Greenbury Point! · Change.org .
Our query to Navy Public Affairs (CHINFO) requesting an update on the status of the proposal was unanswered by publication time. If there is anything significant to report further, we’ll include it in our next column.
County’s 1st Prevention Coalition Social at Libations Tavern June 15th
Anne Arundel County will hold its first “Prevention Coalition Social Event” at Libations Tavern at 8541 Veterans Highway in Millersville on June 15th from 6:30 to 8 pm. Aimed at preventing substance abuse, the event will feature the Safe County Alliance with Cpl. Middleton & Operation Save. Also featured will be Karen Renee Interior Designs’ owner Karen Osborne who will be launching a “Just In Time Wellness App” in memory of her son Justin. For more information, visit Anne Arundel County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalitions (preventsubstancemisuse.org)
Corks for a Cause benefitting BWMC Foundation at Homestead Gardens June 15th
Corks for A Cause, hosted by Baltimore Washington Medical Center Foundation and NextGen is being held at Homestead Gardens Severna Park at 522 Ritchie Highway on June 15 from 6 to 8 pm. For the third year, Fishpaws Marketplace, in partnership with BWMC Foundation, Homestead Gardens and NextGen, will have 90+ point wines from around the world for guests to sample along with gourmet hors d’ouvres and artisanal cheeses from area purveyors.
According to Fishpaws Marketplace owner Kim Lawson, 100% of the proceeds will support BWMC’s Emergency Department renovations, Infant Safe Sleep Program and Healing Garden. Live entertainment will be provided by musician/songwriter Dan Haas. Tickets are $60 in advance and $65 at the door and may be obtained at Corks for a Cause – BWMC Foundation | UM Baltimore Washington Medical Center (umms.org).
